Jesus. Some people have to go and make things so damned complex. It’s bad enough trying to keep track of one set of house-keys, but when some clever bastard goes and hands you another set you might well just as resort to breaking and entering. Named after the San Gabriel river fork north of Austin, Texas, South San Gabriel are the prolific Will Johnson’s ‘other’ band. The ‘other band’ is, of course, Centro-Matic. One does slightly grizzled lo-fi in the style of leathery eccentrics like Sparklehorse, Richmond Fontaine, Matthew Ryan and Grant Lee Phillips and the other does more intimate and low-key stuff with guests. Why bother splitting them up in the first place? Haven’t got a clue. In fact it’s rather like having two straws for the same one milkshake, or two monitors for your PC. However, a more faithful comparison would be say it was like having two fairly unremarkable albums in lieu of one pretty good one, because that is what we have here: one disc of unruly, scratchy indie-rocks tunes courtesy of Centro-Matic and one boasting more idiosyncratic and tender fare from Will’s South San Gabriel other-half.
Recorded lightning fast during one week in July 2006, and a few weeks in February 2007 the record features the usual Centro Suspects plus guest appearances from Matt Stoessel (pedal steel), Bryan VanDivier (bass guitar, baritone guitar, percussion), Robert Gomez (arrangements), Jeffrey Barnes (clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, flute, throat singing), Buffi Jacobs (cello), Tamara Cauble (viola, violin), David Pierce (trombone), and James Driscoll (upright bass).
Highlights include ‘Every Single Switch’, ‘Corner Cross’ ‘Straychnine Breathless Ways’, ‘The Rat Patrol and the DJs’, ‘Quality Strange’ and ‘The Kite’.